Registered Marital Status

Registered Marital Status (MSTP, IFMSTP)This variable records a person's current status in regard to a registered marriage, i.e. whether he/she is widowed, divorced, separated, married or has never married.

Where Registered Marital Status (MSTP) was not stated, it was imputed (or derived to Not Applicable when age is less than 15 years). The proportion of persons that had their Registered Marital Status imputed in the 2011 Census was 4.7% compared to 5.4% in 2006. The majority of imputed registered marital status are attributed to persons in occupied dwellings on Census Night that did not return a form. A smaller proportion were due to persons who returned a partially completed form without reporting registered marital status.

The variable Imputation Flag for Registered Marital Status (IFMSTP) indicates if a person's Registered Marital Status was imputed in the Census. There are three categories:

The responses to this question are captured automatically from mark-box responses on the form so the risk of processing error is minimal. Sample checks are undertaken to ensure an acceptable level of quality. In a small proportion of cases (testing has indicated that this is less than 1.0%), respondents provided an incorrect number of responses (for MSTP, respondents were asked to only mark one response). In these cases, responses were accepted in the order they appeared on the form and the extra responses were rejected.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.